1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable information equipment system including portable information equipment such as a portable telephone, and a battery charger of the equipment.
2. Background of the Invention
FIG. 8 is a block diagram of the structure of conventional portable information equipment such as a PHS (Personal Handy phone System).
In portable information equipment 53, an antenna 31 transmits and receives a radio wave. The radio wave received from the antenna 31 is transmitted via a switch 32 to a receive group 33 to be subjected to signal processing. The signal processed in the receive group 33 is transmitted to a voice processing portion 34 where the signal goes through voice processing to be a voice signal. Then, a receiver 35 receives the voice signal and emits a voice therefrom.
A microphone 36 receives a voice signal and transmits it to the voice processing portion 34. The voice processing portion 34 performs signal processing of the voice from the microphone 36 and transmits it to a transmit group 37. After performing signal processing of the signal from the voice processing portion 34, the transmit group 37 transmits it as a radio wave via the switch 32 to the antenna 31.
The receive group 33, the transmit group 37, and the voice processing portion 34 are controlled by a circuit control signal SC from a micro controller 40. The micro controller 40, operating on the basis of a clock generated by a crystal oscillator 41, controls a display of a liquid-crystal display portion 42, receives an input from a keyboard 43, or performs the reading and writing from/to a storage portion 44 as well as outputting the circuit control signal SC.
The liquid-crystal display portion 42 displays information, such as an input from the keyboard 43 and received electric field strength. The keyboard 43 receives information input such as a phone number, and the storage portion 44 stores personal information such as a phone number.
A rechargeable battery 45 is an operating power of the portable information equipment 53. As shown in FIG. 9, the battery 45 becomes chargeable by inserting an AC adapter 51 into an electrical outlet 52 to establish electric connections between the AC adapter 51 and the battery charger 50 as well as establishing electric connections between the portable information equipment 53 and the battery charger 50.
The AC adapter 51 converts an ac voltage obtained from the electrical outlet 52 into an appropriate dc voltage and gives it to the battery charger 50. With the dc voltage from the AC adapter 51, the battery charger 50 charges the rechargeable battery 45 in the portable information equipment 53.
The storage portion 44 consists of a high-performance/low-power volatile memory, and a nonvolatile memory that makes no loss of personal information even with insufficient holding power.
As previously described, the portable information equipment, such as a portable telephone, includes a storage portion for storing personal information such as a phone number, an address, and a schedule. This kind of portable information equipment has a built-in rechargeable battery which is charged periodically for operation.
Such portable information equipment, however, carries a risk that the personal information stored in the internal storage portion may be lost, for example when an user leave the rechargeable battery in the equipment uncharged. To prevent this, mostly applied as a memory element for storing the personal information in the portable information equipment has been a nonvolatile memory, such as a flash memory or an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), that makes no loss of the memory contents even with low or no power voltage.
The nonvolatile memory, however, has the following problems:
(1) Its high manufacturing cost as compared with that of an ordinary volatile memory results in price increase of the portable information equipment;
(2) The use of relatively high write voltage in writing of data (still 5 to 10 V in this semiconductor world where the standard voltage is now about 3.3 V) is an disadvantage for the portable information equipment which requires reduction in power consumption;
(3) If required to include a voltage-transform device driver, the portable information equipment is upsized to be not suitable for portability; and
(4) The adoption of a high-voltage battery results in price increase of the portable information equipment.
A first aspect of the present invention is directed to a portable information equipment system comprising: portable information equipment having a rechargeable battery and operating with the rechargeable battery used as an operating power; and a battery charger capable of charging the rechargeable battery when connected to the portable information equipment in a predetermined condition. The portable information equipment further includes: input means; a storage portion for portable information equipment, storing personal information; and a control portion for portable information equipment, capable of transmitting/receiving information to/from the storage portion for portable information equipment. The battery charger includes: a storage portion for battery charger, storing backup information and an inquiry password; and a control portion for battery charger, capable of transmitting/receiving information to/from the storage portion for battery charger. When the portable information equipment and the battery charger are connected in the predetermined condition, information can be transmitted between the control portion for portable information equipment and the control portion for battery charger, and information management operation is automatically performed between the storage portion for portable information equipment and the storage portion for battery charger, under the control of the control portion for portable information equipment and the control portion for battery charger. The information management operation comprises the steps of: (a) judging whether a password inputted from the input means is consistent with the inquiry password or not; (b) when the password is judged consistent at the step (a) and the personal information has been updated, performing backup processing by transferring the personal information to the storage portion for battery charger as the backup information; and (c) when the password is judged consistent at the step (a), the personal information has not been updated, and the contents of the personal information are inconsistent with the contents of the backup information, performing restore processing by transferring the backup information to the storage portion for portable information equipment as the personal information.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the portable information equipment system of the first aspect, the portable information equipment includes the first portable information equipment to the N-th (Nxe2x89xa72) portable information equipment; the rechargeable battery includes the first to the N-th rechargeable batteries; the input means includes the first to the N-th input means; the personal information includes the first personal information to the N-th personal information; the storage portion for portable information equipment includes the first to the N-th storage portions for portable information equipment; the inquiry password includes the first to the N-th inquiry passwords corresponding to the first portable information equipment to the N-th portable information equipment; the first to the N-th storage portions further store the first identifying information to the N-th identifying information, respectively; the storage portion for battery charger further stores the first inquiry identifying information to the N-th inquiry identifying information corresponding to the first portable information equipment to the N-th portable information equipment. The i-th (i=1 to N) portable information equipment includes the i-th rechargeable battery, the i-th input means, the i-th storage portion for portable information equipment storing the i-th personal information and the i-th identifying information, and the i-th control portion for portable information equipment capable of transmitting/receiving information to/from the i-th storage portion for portable information equipment. When the M-th (M=either of 1 to N) portable information equipment out of the first to N-th portable information equipment is connected to the battery charger in the predetermined condition, information can be transmitted between the M-th control portion for portable information equipment and the control portion for battery charger, and the information management operation is automatically performed between the M-th storage portion for portable information equipment and the storage portion for battery charger, under the control of the M-th control portion for portable information equipment and the control portion for battery charger. The step (a) includes a step of judging both whether the M-th identifying information is consistent with the M-th inquiry identifying information or not and whether a password inputted from the M-th input means is consistent with the M-th inquiry password or not; the step (b) includes a step of, when both of the M-th identifying information and the password are judged consistent at the step (a) and the M-th personal information has been updated, performing backup processing by transferring the M-th personal information to the storage portion for battery charger as the M-th backup information; and the step (c) includes a step of, when both of the M-th identifying information and the password are judged consistent at the step (a), the M-th personal information has not been updated, and the contents of the M-th personal information are inconsistent with the contents of the M-th backup information, performing restore processing by transferring the M-th backup information to the M-th storage portion for portable information equipment as the M-th personal information.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the portable information equipment system of the first aspect, the storage portion for portable information equipment, except a portion for storing the identifying information, consists of a volatile memory.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the portable information equipment system of the first aspect, the portable information equipment further has an infrared transmit/receive portion for portable information equipment, and the battery charger further has an infrared transmit/receive portion for the battery charger. When the portable information equipment and the battery charger are connected in the predetermined condition, infrared information transfer between the infrared transmit/receive portion for portable information equipment and the infrared transmit/receive portion for the battery charger makes possible information transmission between the control portion for the portable information equipment and the control portion for the battery charger.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the portable information equipment system of the first aspect, the battery charger further includes: a charging terminal for the battery charger; and a modulator electrically connected to the charging terminal for the battery charger and the control portion for the battery charger, and capable of modulating a charging signal for charging the rechargeable battery by an information signal obtained from the storage portion for the battery charger to output a resultant modulating signal to the charging terminal for the battery charger. The portable information equipment further includes: a charging terminal for portable information equipment; and a demodulator electrically connected to the rechargeable battery, the control portion for portable information equipment, and the charging terminal for portable information equipment, and capable of demodulating the modulating signal obtained from the charging terminal for portable information equipment into a demodulating charging signal and a demodulating information signal and outputting the demodulating charging signal to the rechargeable battery and the demodulating information signal to the control portion for portable information equipment. When the portable information equipment and the battery charger are connected in the predetermined condition, the charging terminal for portable information equipment and the charging terminal for the battery charger are electrically connected so that the modulating signal can be outputted from the modulator and the demodulating charging signal and the demodulating information signal can be outputted from the demodulator, by which information transmission becomes possible between the control portion for portable information equipment and the control portion for the battery charger.
In the portable information equipment system of the first aspect, the information management operation performed concurrently with the charging operation of the rechargeable battery, comprises the steps of (a) judging whether a password inputted from the input means is consistent with the inquiry password or not; (b) when the input password is judged consistent at the step (a) and the personal information has been updated, performing backup processing by transferring the personal information to the storage portion in the battery charger as the backup information; and (c) when the input password is judged consistent at the step (a), the personal information has not been updated, and the contents of the personal information are inconsistent with the contents of the backup information, performing restore processing by transferring the backup information to the storage portion for portable information equipment as the personal information.
At the step (b), the backup processing of the updated personal information in the storage portion for portable information equipment is automatically performed. When the personal information has not been updated but in an imperfect condition, the restore processing is automatically performed at the step (c) by transferring the backup information in the battery charger to the storage portion for portable information equipment as the personal information. Thus, even in case of loss, the personal information in the storage portion for portable information equipment can be automatically restored to its state at the time of the previous charge.
By using a relatively inexpensive and low-power memory to form the storage portion for portable information equipment, without emphasizing the information-holding properties of the memory, it becomes possible to obtain a portable information equipment system having an information registration function as well as to reduce manufacturing cost and power consumption thereof.
Besides, at the step (a) to be the starting condition of the steps (b) and (c), the check using the inquiry password totally avoids a risk that a third party not an user may commit piracy of the backup information in the storage portion for battery charger by connecting the portable information equipment and the battery charger. This minimizes diminution in security due to the backup information stored in the storage portion for battery charger.
In the portable information equipment system of the second aspect, the portable information equipment includes the first portable information equipment to the N-th (Nxe2x89xa72) portable information equipment. If the M-th (M=either of 1 to N) portable information equipment out of the first portable information equipment to the N-th portable information equipment is connected to the battery charger in a predetermined condition, information transmission becomes possible between the M-th control portion for portable information equipment and the control portion for battery charger. Further, concurrent with the charging operation of the M-th rechargeable battery, the information management operation is automatically performed between the M-th storage portion for portable information equipment and the storage portion for battery charger, under the control of the M-th control portion for portable information equipment and the control portion for battery charger. Thus, the portable information equipment system comprising the first portable information equipment to the N-th portable information equipment and the battery charger can obtain the same effect as the system of the first aspect.
Besides, at the step (a) to be the starting condition of the steps (b) and (c), the check using the M-th inquiry identifying information and the M-th inquiry password totally avoids a risk that other portable information equipment which can be connected to the battery charger, not the M-th portable information equipment, may be used to commit piracy of the backup information. This prevents diminution in security even if the storage portion for battery charger, common to the first portable information equipment to the N-th portable information equipment, stores the first backup information to the N-th backup information.
In the portable information equipment system of the third aspect, the storage portion for portable information equipment, except a portion for storing the identifying information, consists of a volatile memory. This achieves low manufacturing cost, low power consumption, and increased access speed to the memory.
In the portable information equipment system of the fourth aspect, when the portable information equipment and the battery charger are connected in a predetermined condition, infrared information transfer between the infrared transmit/receive portion for portable information equipment and the infrared transmit/receive portion for battery charger makes possible information transmission between the control portion for portable information equipment and the control portion for battery charger, during the charging operation of the rechargeable battery.
As a result, without directly connecting the portable information equipment and the battery charger, a signal can be transmitted through the infrared transmit/receive portion for portable information equipment and the infrared transmit/receive portion for battery charger. This increases reliability of the signal transmission.
In the portable information equipment system of the fifth aspect, when the portable information equipment and the battery charger are connected in a predetermined condition, the charging terminal for portable information equipment and the charging terminal for battery charger are electrically connected so that the modulating signal can be outputted from the modulator in the battery charger and the demodulating charging signal and the demodulating information signal can be outputted from the demodulator in the portable information equipment. This makes possible information transmission between the control portion for portable information equipment and the control portion for battery charger, during the charging operation of the rechargeable battery.
The use of the charging terminals for the signal transmission between the portable information equipment and the battery charger avoids the necessity of providing another external terminal for the information signal transfer. This simplifies circuit structure.
An object of the present invention is to obtain a portable information equipment system having an information registration function while reducing manufacturing cost and power consumption thereof.
These and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.